After spending last year stuck at home with COVID-19, forced to spectate via social media, let’s just say I was heavily anticipating returning to State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona, for the 14th edition of Dino’s Git-Down. Without mixing a bunch of words, I was not in the least bit disappointed!
To start off this year’s Git-Down extravaganza, our friends at Auto Metal Direct (AMD) organized GM Truck Week leading into Dino’s Friday to Saturday gig. Eddy and Jason from AMD worked with local shops/businesses, like All American Billet, Fat Fender Garage, GSI, and Tre 5/iKandy Paintworks (who celebrated their 10th pre-party anniversary this year), making for a full week of truckin’ adventure leading up to the big show. Based off the results of the first-ever GM Truck Week, looks like you can count on that being a part of Dino’s 15th Git-Down in 2025!
Once Friday rolled around, those not requiring a lengthy recuperation from Tre 5 the night prior were up bright and early (and some apparently never ended their celebratory stretch!), lined up along the streets surround the Cardinals’ home turf and ready to fill the expanded show area in the stadium parking lot. With the vendor area dead center of the venue—this year arranged in a “grocery store” manner according to types of product/services, according to Dino’s girlfriend, Terri—both sides of the lot were jam-packed with GM trucks of all eras and sizes well before noon, leaving plenty of Arizona fall sunshine to do just that: shine down on what definitely appeared to be the biggest one yet! (But as Dino himself stated in a local news spot, this is not the “big one,” it’s the “only one” … and when it comes to GM-based truck shows, I couldn’t agree more!) And that was just Friday; we still had one more day to go!
Saturday, of course, is trucks AND cars (still GM only), and as such the place gets even more packed. Once the free guests had found their parking spots and the dust settled, then came the big giveaways. This year, Dino’s attendees had the opportunity to win engines from BluePrint/Summit and AutoNation, a transmission package from Speedway Motors, bucket seats from Apex Leather, and even a car trailer from Jackson’s Trailers. Additionally, our friends at FiTech had their own giveaway, raffling off a complete EFI system to one lucky attendee. (Speaking of FiTech, we might just have something even more special in the works to give away at next year’s Git-Down, so definitely stay tuned to CTP’s socials!)
By 3 p.m. Saturday, the 14th Annual Dino’s Git-Down had officially wound down … but I was still buzzing with what I’d just experienced! Can the show get any bigger?! Gonna venture to say that’s a dumb question, but we’ll just have to wait till next November to see!
